Facilitating transnational government needs to be democratic: NCET

[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 February 2010, 15:55 GMT]For the successful formation of Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE), the idea should be strongly rooted in the people and there should be consensus in the transnational diaspora on the model, says Norwegian Council of Eezham Tamils (NCET) responding to the call for comments by the TGTE formation committee on a model proposed by its advisory panel. A grass root based transnational government having federal units and inter-locking mechanism is a better democratic option than a monolithic and high-powered structure conceived in the proposed model, the NCET said, adding that sectarianism and singly led formation process diminish chances of consensus on the model. In a public videoconference recently held in Oslo, Mr V. Rudrakumaran admitted that he alone was the Formation Committee of the TGTE, the observations of the NCET said.

While welcoming some of the progressive ideas and guidelines in the advisory panel report as paving way for discussions, the observations and suggestions of the Norwegian Council discussed five main issues.

The Norwegian council cited the following statement from the TGTE advisory panel report : "TGTE should not make any statements or take any steps that may make its engagement with the international community difficult." This will demoralise the righteousness of the Tamil nationalist struggle, the Norwegian council said.

Instead, Tamils in unison have to concentrate on creating a 'geo-political de-facto situation' as their de-facto state has been crushed, the NCET said urging that the younger generation should now take the leadership replacing the older generation suffering from 'defeatism'.

Suggesting a wider democratic structure for the TGTE, the Norwegian council said it is advisable to conduct elections for the transnational government after forming country councils, a move that has already been set in motion in the diaspora.

Rather than being 'monolithic' the TGTE could be based on a 'federal setup' with 'interlocking mechanism' to protect it from deviations, the Norwegian council said. The observations also cited the rotating presidency model of the European Union.

The TGTE, statutorily endorsing 'step-by-step' approach for the nationalist goal should be completely avoided, even though Tamils should be always prepared to constructively discuss any reasonable model of political solution, was the opinion of the Norwegian council.

After 60 years of struggle that has not surrendered the Tamil sovereignty and after going through the heights of the genocidal war, the talk of step-by-step approach, coming from the Tamil standpoint, is an indirect endorsement to inferior solutions, the council said.

As far as the Eezham Tamil natoin is concerned, its evolutionary as well as step-by-step period for 'internal self-determination' ended in 1977 through a mandate from the people, for total independence. Even the period for experimenting solutions through 'internal self-determination’ ended with Mu'l'livaaykkaal war.

The TGTE fundamentals should clearly come out with the historicity of the reality and avoid citing Thimphu principles as a basis of its polity, the NCET said. The TGTE should assert to the right to self-determination as an 'inalienable right' of Eezham Tamils, rather than a right to achieve, is the view of the Norwegian Council.

On avoiding practical difficulties in the formation of TGTE, the Norwegian council suggested a structured approach with a time schedule, beginning with re-mandating the main principle of the Vaddukkoaddai Resolution, followed by the formation of country councils and then coming to the TGTE.

The very efforts of forming the TGTE should be made by elected representatives rather than by appointed committees, the Norwegian council said, implying that the country councils could be able to take up the endeavour.

The TGTE should specify independent source of finance for its functioning as it is important for the independence of the whole democratic exercise, the Norwegian council further said.